Nanako Matsushima

Nanako Matsushima (松嶋 菜々子) is a Japanese actress and model. She starred in the horror film Ring, and was also the female lead character in the drama A Story of Love, along with Ring co-star Hiroyuki Sanada. In 2011, her drama I'm Mita, Your Housekeeper. reached a viewer rating of 40%, making it one of the highest rated Japanese dramas of all time.

Personal life
Matsushima was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. On February 21, 2001, she married Japanese actor Takashi Sorimachi, her co-star in the drama Great Teacher Onizuka. They have two daughters together, born on May 31, 2004, and November 30, 2007. She has been called one of Japan's most beautiful women.

Career
Matsushima has won the Best Actress Award at the Japan Television Drama Academy Awards six times. In 1997, she was selected to play the female lead, a poor but happy designer who happens to run a shop in a building owned by a wealthy, arrogant but dying rich man played by Hiroyuki Sanada in the drama A Story of Love, also known as Konna Koi No Hanashi for its Japanese title. The drama chronicles the trial and tribulations that the leads undergo as their feelings developed into something more than mere friendship.

In 1998, Matsushima starred together with her now husband, Takashi Sorimachi in the drama Great Teacher Onizuka, about a former delinquent turned teacher. The drama, based on a manga, received a 35.7 rating for its final episode, making it one of the highest rated Japanese dramas ever. In November 2023, she co-starred along with her husband in a commercial for Shiseido. The commercial marked the couple's first shared appearance since Great Teacher Onizuka and their first time together following their marriage in 2001. In 2024 the couple appeared together in the remake of Great Teacher Onizuka, GTO Revival, where Matsushima guest starred, reprising her role as Azusa Fuyutsuki.

In 1999, Matsushima appeared as the female lead in the drama Majo no Jōken (Terms for a Witch) which centres on the romance between a teacher and her student, with Hideaki Takizawa as the male lead. The show was awarded the best drama at the 21st Japan Television Drama Academy Awards.

Matsushima played Tsubaki Domyouji, sister of the main male lead Domyouji Tsukasa, played by Jun Matsumoto, in the 2005 drama Boys Over Flowers and Boys Over Flowers 2. Both dramas were a rating success with the final episode of Boys Over Flowers 2 peaking at 27.6. She also starred alongside Matsumoto in 2012, in the comedy serial drama Lucky Seven, where she played his boss. The third time they appeared together, Matsushima played Matsumoto's character Chikara Nakagoshi's neighbor, Yoriko Michio, in the 2022 drama My neighbor, Chikara. The two shared another stage in NHK's 2023 Taiga drama What Will You Do, Ieyasu?, with her playing the role of Odai no Kata, mother to Matsumoto's Ieyasu Tokugawa.

In 2011, Matsushima starred in I am Mita, Your Housekeeper, the final episode of which garnered a rating of 40%, making it one of the highest rated Japanese dramas of all time. The show won several awards, including the Best Drama and Best Female Actress awards at the 71st Television Drama Academy Awards.

Matsushima was also cast as the main lead in the horror film Ring, often cited as one of the best horror films of all time. The movies also marked the second debut between Matsushima and Hiroyuki Sanada, who had previously worked together in the drama A Story of love.

Matsushima has also appeared in films including the 2000 film Whiteout, which grossed over 4.2 billion yen in Japan. For her role in the film, Matsushima was nominated for the Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role award at the 24th Japan Academy Film Prize.

In September 2021, she co-starred in a commercial for Uber Eats alongside Matt Kuwata.